Now, on to more business. There's good news and bad news. The bad news is, overall, in my humble opinion, we underachieved a little bit today. The positives included what is to come with both relays qualifying and with Smith and Cunningham advancing to the finals in the 400-meter finals. On the women's side, Breana outperformed her seeding, which is all you can ask four.
In the men's pole vault, Cory dropped to ninth, but Thomas was able to jump up to a tie for seventh with Stephen finishing fourth. At the end of the day, we were seeded to have two athletes score points in the men's pole vault, and they did.
The long jump and the 200-meter race hurt us as none of our athletes were able to reach the finals. With North Central College already at 23 points, McMurry will have their work cut out for them in the next 48 hours.
That brings us to the good news. Along with the aforementioned relay teams and 400-meter hurdle athletes advancing, there is still a chance for Stryker Pena, Gavan Bass, Josh Zu-Bolton and Terry Smith to qualify in individual events. There's much potential for McMurry to score points and make a run at the title, now we'll have to wait and see.
I thought Breana's story was a great one; already a three-time all-American between indoor and outdoor - she battles an ankle injury all year, and jumps nine spots from her No. 15 seed to earn all-America status for the third-straight year in the outdoor long jump. Congratulations and kudos to her!Also, there have always been pole vaulters on both the men's and women's side at McMurry, and in large part because of six-time national champion Brad Parris as the assistant coach. I know that Brad was proud to see Thomas Dimitri (pictured) close out his senior season and career with another all-America finish. Dimitri finishes his career with two-straight all-America finishes in the top eight at outdoor nationals and was a key part in four-straight ASC titles for the men. Congratulations to Thomas and it looks like the three teammates he competed alongside today will help carry on the McMurry pole vault legacy.
The McMurry men have 6.5 points heading into tomorrow, it was 92 degrees in Berea today and felt an awful lot like home. Tomorrow calls for 79-degree weather, that will be a welcome change, and maybe momentum can swing back in McMurry's favor on the men's side as well.
It's been a long day, but I'm looking forward to two more ...
Stay tuned ...
--KR
No comments:
Post a Comment